Civilization VI's second expansion, Gathering Storm recently released and has added a handful of new civilizations and leaders. I am hoping to write a strategy for each of them, but I want to start with the civilizations and leaders who are completely new to the franchise.

One of these new civs represents a sort-of "farewell" present to the founder and former lead-host of the PolyCast podcast, Dan Q, who stepped down from the podcast at the end of 2018 in order to spend more time with his new family. However, he'll still be playing Civ, and for the first time in the franchise's history, Dan gets to play as his home and native land of Canada. It's too bad he's not on PolyCast anymore to tell us about how great Wilfrid Laurier of Canada is, eh?

On a more serious note: thank you, Dan for over a decade of faithful service and dedication to the Civilization community. And on a more personal note, thank you for inviting me to join the regular panel on PolyCast. You gave me a voice within this community that I did not think I would ever be able to reach. We'll miss you, Dan, and we hope to talk to you again as a guest host many times in the future. Best wishes to you and your new wife in your new life together. May your lives together be forever in a Golden Age!

This guide is dedicated to you, Dan. Now let's talk about Canada in Civilization VI!

The first European colony in North America is widely accepted to be a Norse encampment in Newfoundland, which was abandoned within a few years of settlement. It wasn't until the 16th century that large-scale colonization began -- mostly by French and British colonists. In 1763, France ceded most of its North American colonies to the British following years of on-again-off-again warfare. The Confederation of Canada was formed over a hundred years later, but remained loyal to the British crown until the Canada Act of 1982. Despite being a formally independent nation, Canada still maintains the British monarch (currently Queen Elizabeth II) as its official head of state. Because many of the founding cities were French colonies, Canada is an officially bilingual country, with both English and French being its official languages, and it is now one of the most multi-cultural nations in the world due to frequent large-scale immigration from other parts of the world. Canadian interactions with indigenous peoples were generally less violent than with neighboring United States' interactions with natives. However, the expansion of Canadian territory still required the forced relocation or assimilation of somewhere between 200,000 and 2 million indigenous peoples, including the Inuit, Métis, the Cree, and several dozen other tribes.

Canada's first French-speaking prime minister was Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier. Laurier was part of Canada's Liberal party, advocating for decentralized federalism and staunchly defending individual personal liberty. Despite wishing for Canada to remain an autonomous nation loyal to the British Empire, he would go on to oppose British conscription of Canadian citizens in World War I, which would become a polarizing issue in the early 20th century. He gained a reputation as a bright and cheerful leader who always followed the "sunny ways", and has become one of the most beloved prime minsters in Canadian history.

DISCLAIMER:Civilization VI is still a "living game". Strategies for the game (and for specific leaders and civs) may change as Firaxis applies balance patches, introduces new features, or expands the game through further DLC or expansion packs, or as the Civ community discovers new strategies or exploits. As such, the following strategy guide may change from time to time. I will try to keep it up-to-date, and will make notations whenever changes are made. I'll also post links in the official 2K forums and CivFanatics, where I'll also report any changes made. If possible and practical, I will try to retain the original content of the strategy for posterity.

I welcome any feedback or suggestions that readers wish to offer. Feel free to post on the linked forums, or by posting a comment at the bottom of the page.

Canada civilization unique: Four Faces of Peace

"Cannot declare war on City-States or surprise wars. Surprise wars cannot be declared on Canada. For every 100 Tourism per turn, earn 1 Diplomatic Favor per turn. Receive +100% Diplomatic Favor from successfully completing an Emergency or Scored Competition."

Canada will enjoy the slight sense of security in knowing that they cannot be the target of a "Surprise War". As long as you don't do anything that might unlock a casus beli against you, you can feel mostly secure. If you aren't conquering other civs' cities, if you're not forward-settling other civs, and if you aren't breaking promises to other civs, then you will be immune from most casus beli. However, this does not mean that you cannot be surprised by a war! The Golden Age War casus beli can still be used against Canada on a whim, if the declaring civilization is in a golden age. Civs can also bypass denouncements by finding a partner for a Joint War -- which is basically being surprised by a double team.

Canada is not allowed to declare war on city states, so if you're usual strategy relies on conquering city states to get easy cities, you'll have to change up your play style. Build more Settlers early to found your own cities, or conquer a neighbor's cities instead. If you want the city state for yourself, you'll have to hope another civilization captures it, so that you can capture it from them.

Canada will also gain double Diplomatic Favor from successfully completing an emergency or scored competition which awards favor. Whether or not you ever have opportunities to participate in emergencies and competitions will be very circumstantial, and somewhat random. Eligible events include:

emergency declaration to send aid to another civ after a disaster,

emergency declaration to liberate a captured city state or capital,

emergency declaration to de-convert a holy city,

scored competitions started by World Congress.

Winning a scored competition rewards you with the gold tier and silver tier prizes (as per description).

Pay attention to the reward tiers of an emergency or competition. Typically, there is a reward of Diplomatic Favor for the top 25% of scorers. In addition, there is a further reward for the single top scorer of the competition. If you win the competition, you get both the gold tier prize and the silver tier prize. So if the gold prize is a Diplomatic Victory Point, and the silver prize is Diplomatic Favor, you will get both the victory point and the favor by winning the competition.

Unlike in Rise & Fall, emergencies are now called via a vote in the World Congress, rather than happening automatically when the applicable event happens. This gives you some control over when they happen. If a vote comes up for a competition that you can win, vote for it. If a vote comes up for a competition that you can't win, you can vote against it to deny the rewards to other players. Most emergencies will also remain available for you to propose for some number of turns after the triggering event. This means that you can prepare yourself for the emergency for a few turns prior to proposing it, in order to give yourself a head start. This may include pre-training and positioning military units to attack an opponent before they have a chance to react to the emergency declaration, or pre-purchasing some missionaries or apostles to spam a holy city.

Emergencies are called via a vote in the World Congress. Diplomatic Favor is required to initiate an emergency.

Canada will also receive an extra Diplomatic Favor per 100 tourism for each turn that it is generating 100 tourism or more. You don't really accumulate tourism like you do with other yields, so you don't earn the favor by accumulating 100 tourism. You have to be generating 100 tourism per turn in order to see this benefit. So use those Mounties to build National Parks!

Wilfrid Laurier's leader unique: The Last Best West

"Allows Farms to be built on Tundra terrain. After Civil Engineering is unlocked, Farms can be built on Tundra Hills. Snow, Tundra, Snow Hill, and Tundra Hills Mines provide +1 Production and strategic resources accumulation rate is +100%. Reduces the purchase cost of tiles in these terrain types by 50%."

Canada specializes in taming the tundra. The ability to build farms on tundra gives Canada more versatility with its city placement than Russia. Russian cities still need to have access to food resources in order to grow beyond a few population points. All Canada needs is flat land on which to build farms. However, you will likely still need to build those farms in triangles (with the Feudalism adjacency boost) in order for them to be worthwhile. Later in the game, after researching the Civil Engineering civic, Canada will also be able to build farms on tundra hills in order to facilitate further growth and get more adjacency boosts.

In addition to being able to farm that land, Canada also gets +1 production from mines built on snow and tundra tiles (as of the April 2019 patch). You won't be able to work too many of these tiles until you get your food output high, or you use domestic trade routes to support your population.

Strategic resource extraction rate is also doubled for tundra and snow tiles (whether they are mined or not). From what I can tell, bonus resources from policies like Equestrian Orders, Drill Manuals, and Resource Management will also be doubled if the source is on tundra or snow. Your stockpiles will likely fill very quickly, and you'll be able to train resource-dependent units more quickly. You can also sell excess strategic resources for gold and/or Diplomatic Favor if you can't train new units fast enough to keep the supply from maxing out.

Canada also gets a discount on purchasing tundra and snow tiles. Combine this with the Land Surveyor policy after founding cities in order to quickly claim territory. This allows Canada to more quickly claim those precious resources in the second and third ring in sparse tundra areas before another civ can plop a snowball city there to claim the resources for themselves. It can also be used to quickly seal off your borders to prevent other units from slipping through without an open borders treaty, and it can also reduce the likelihood of a barbarian outpost spawning in the middle of your sphere of influence.

Unique improvement: Ice Hockey Rink

Game Info:

"Unlocks the Builder ability to construct an Ice Hockey Rink, unique to Canada.
+1 Amenity. +1 Culture for each adjacent Tundra, Tundra Hills, Snow, and Snow Hills tile. Provides Tourism from Culture once Flight is unlocked. +2 Food and Production once the Professional Sports civic is unlocked. +4 Culture if adjacent to a Stadium building. Can be built on Tundra, Tundra Hills, Snow, and Snow Hills. One per city. +2 Appeal."

Requirements: Colonialism civic,
must be built on tundra, tundra hills, snow, or snow hills.

Place Hockey Rinks adjacent to tourism improvements
to boost their appeal.

You won't be building any field hockey rinks (or inventing air conditioning, apparently) because you can only build Ice Hockey Rinks on tundra and snowy tiles. The hockey rink gets a point of culture for each tundra or snow tile adjacent to it. The rink itself will provide 2 appeal to the tile, which can benefit adjacent Neighborhoods and/or National Parks. An adjacent Entertainment Complex with a Stadium will also increase the culture yield of the hockey rink by 4 (giving it a potential maximum of 10 culture). Note that this yield cannot be further increased by placing the hockey rink adjacent to multiple stadiums. The hockey rink is best-utilized on tiles completely surrounded by tundra and snow, with adjacent Neighborhoods, National Parks, Stadiums, Seaside Resorts, and Ski Resorts.

Farms on tundra aren't the only source of food for Canada's arctic cities. Apparently, Canadian citizens can also subsist off of the hot dogs, pretzels, popcorn, and other concessions sold at hockey games (but only after researching the Professional Sports civic). This civic will also cause hockey rinks to produce 2 extra production as well.

Unique unit: Mountie

Game Info: "Canadian unique Modern era unit. Can create a National Park. +5 Combat Strength when fighting within 2 tiles of a National Park. Additional +5 Combat Strength when fighting within 2 tiles of a National Park you own."

Bonuses: +5 combat strength within 2 tiles of any National Park,
+5 additional combat strength if the National Park is Canadian,
Can build National Parks, has one charge.

The Mountie is one of the rare military units that is unlocked on the civics tree. It does not replace any particular unit, which means you can't upgrade to it. You'll have to train Mounties from scratch. Doing so might not be worthwile unless you have potential National Parks in your territory, as the Mountie is actually slightly weaker than Cavalry (by 2 combat strength), and won't be very good in combat without its bonuses.

Mounties benefit from National Parks, as they receive combat bonuses when battling within 2 tiles of a National Park. The bonus is increased if the park is Canadian. To help you get this bonus, the Mountie can also build a National Park. It has one charge with which to do so, and (just like other improvement-building units like the Roman Legion and Maori Tao) the Mountie is not destroyed when that build charge is expended. The ability to create National Parks with a military unit means that Canada will never need to save up faith in order to buy a Naturalist, which leaves you free to focus all your faith on Rock Bands for a Culture Victory. If you're not going for a culture victory, then you can spend your faith on religious buildings, religious units, or on patronage or great people.

Mounties can potentially be decent defensive units (with a +10 bonus) if you are able to build multiple National Parks within your territory. In this case, they will be comparable in combat strength to Infantry. Having a few around might help if your opponents are recruiting Partizans in your cities and spawning barbarians. They can also be potent offensive units in the rare circumstance that your opponent is ahead in culture, has created National Parks within their territory, but is lagging behind in technology and can't train more advanced industrial and modern units.

Following the "Sunny Ways" with Wilfrid Laurier's Canada

Canada is one civ that might not need to re-roll the map if you start in tundra. The ability to farm tundra tiles and get increased production from mines will make a snowball start much more viable. That being said, you should probably still focus your initial exploration and colonization in the direction of more temperate and fertile lands. These lands will be the most competitive, and you should claim them before other civilizations do.

Prioritize settling more temperate, fertile lands first, then fill in the tundra that nobody else wants.

After you get your first few cities up and running on grasslands or plains, you can usually back-fill the tundra territory in the direction of the poles, where other civs are likely to not even bother settling. Adopt the Colonization policy (preferably along with the Ancestral Hall government building and governor Magnus's Provisions promotion), spam out a bunch of settlers, and fill in all that arctic wasteland before other civs run out of appealing locations and start claiming it. In fact, Magnus will likely be very valuable for several promotions, including the Surplus Logistics promotion that will allow you to use trade routes to help your snowball cities grow faster.

You'll probably want to adopt Ilkum and/or Serfdom once you get your tundra cities founded, so you can pump out Builders and start farming those tundra tiles. You can further buff one of these cities with St. Basil's Cathedral world wonder, which provides bonus food, production, and culture on tundra tiles in the city. It's basically tundra-Petra. If a civ like Russia or Norway is in the game, you can expect stiff competition for this wonder. Otherwise, it should be easy enough to build.

Strategic resources on tundra accumulate faster,
and will run up against your supply max sooner.

As you explore, pay close attention to strategic resources. Canada receives double supply per turn of strategic resources -- but only the ones on tundra and snow! Remember that you have a cap on how much of a resource you can store (50 on standard speed and map size). You can increase this capacity by building Encampment buildings such as Barracks, Stables, Armories, and so forth. Even though you can't be surprise war declared upon, don't neglect building Encampments!

There's two ways for you to spend strategic resources: train / upgrade units or sell the excess supply. Unit-training policies such as Agoge, Maneuver, Feudal Contract, Chivalry, Press Gangs, and so forth will allow you to rapidly produce resource-requiring units. If you get double supply accumulation from resources on tundra and snow, it will be unlikely that you'll be able to keep producing units fast enough to keep your supply from maxing out -- and besides, you'd probably go bankrupt on the maintenance. Instead, you should regularly sell off your excess resource supplies to other civs. Selling strategic resources can be a great way to earn some extra cash early in the game, which you can use to get vital infrastructure such as Water Mills and Granaries out earlier. You probably won't need to bother with resource-generating policies like Equestrian Orders or Drill Manuals unless the other civs are willing to buy a lot of resources.

Sell excess supply to other civs, as long as they won't use them against you.

Try not to sell strategic resources to potential enemies who may use those resources against you, and make sure you train your own defensive units first before selling the resources to potential foes. If the other civs are broke, remember that you can also sell resources to them in exchange for Diplomatic Favor, which you can use to control the World Congress.

Being near a pole means that you'll likely have certain water routes cut off by ice. Try to look for good places to build canal cities or districts so that you can open your own Northwest Passage to allow ships to sail around from coast to coast. Canals won't be unlocked until much later in the game, so try to plan ahead. Remember, the Panama Canal world wonder can allow you to create a canal that is multiple tiles long. With two cities (one tile from inland), two canal districts, and the Panama Canal wonder (and its two canal districts) you can build a canal up to seven tiles wide!

Being near the poles means you're more likely to have naval routes blocked by ice,
so look for places for canals -- whether they be canal districts or city centers.

An atheist nation?

Because the Mountie can found National Parks, Canada does not need to use faith to purchase Naturalists. That means that (assuming you don't play a religious strategy) the only thing that you will need to spend faith to buy is Rock Bands. Canada can, thus, reliably ignore faith entirely unless you explicitly want to pursue religious play. If you do end up generating faith, any faith that you do happen to generate can be used for patronage of great people, or saved up for Rock Bands, instead of Naturalists.

Mounties founding National Parks means Canada won't need to save up faith for a Naturalist.

Be advised, however, that if you do not construct Holy Sites of your own (or conquer someone else's Holy Site), you will not be able to train Missionaries, Apostles, or Inquisitors, and will not be able to use those units to counteract another player's religious conversions. Your only defense against another civ making a run for a religious victory will be to declare war and use your military units to kill his or her religious units. Or capture their capital. Make sure you are thinking ahead enough to denounce them first, since Canada is not allowed to declare a surprise war. Or you can vote to enact Option B of the World Religion resolution (if it shows up in the Congress) to allow you to condemn religious units without needing to declare war.

If you do decide to invest in faith early (or faith is given to you by a tribal village or city state), then there are some good pantheons for Canada. Canada's tundra start bias means that Dance of the Aurora (Holy Site adjacency bonus from tundra) is a no-brainer if you want to build Holy Sites. There are no new pantheons in Gathering Storm, so other than Dance of the Aurora, any other Pantheons you chose will be dependent on the map and resources.

Dance of the Aurora will buff tundra Holy Sites.

If you're not planning on using faith at all, then don't bother adopting a pantheon that generates faith. Instead, select a pantheon that provides some other yield or bonus. Tundra has a lot of deer resources, so Goddess of the Hunt (+1 food from camps) is likely to be a solid pantheon. God of Craftsman may not be bad since you'll likely be looking for strategic resources. Other, generally weak pantheons may also warrant a second look. Religious Settlements (faster border growth) will help you claim unimpressive tundra and snow tiles without having to spend gold to buy them. God of the Forge (+25% production towards ancient and classical units) can help you spend those extra strategic resources before your capacity fills up.

And then of course, there's the always-good, go-to pantheons, such as Divine Spark (+1 Great Person point from districts), Fertility Rights (faster city growth), and City Patron Goddess (+25% production towards a city's first district).

Emergency feedback loop

If emergencies come up which award Diplomatic Favor, you should try to participate in them and win them. Doing so will earn you double favor, which you can use to control the World Congress and enact bonuses and buffs for yourself, or penalties for your rivals. You can also use that favor to propose additional emergency resolutions. Remember that if you vote for a failing resolution, you'll be refunded all your Diplomatic Favor spent on that resolution, and can use it on the next vote. If you vote for the passing resolution, but for a different target than the passing target, you'll be refunded half the favor used on that vote. This means you should have a very good chance of winning the next resolution that you vote for.

Another good source of Diplomatic Favor is the Országház world wonder. It will double the Diplomatic Favor that you gain for being suzerain of a city state. Since you can't declare war on city states, becoming their suzerain is a good strategy. Running the Charismatic Leader policy in your diplomatic slot for much of the game will ensure that you'll have enough envoys to be the suzerain of multiple city states (if not most of them).

Canada is best-suited to military, culture, and diplomatic victories. The extra resources will allow you to train and maintain large armies that you can use for a Domination Victory. The National Parks built by Mounties will help you along the path to a Culture Victory. The extra Diplomatic Favor from completing competitions or from selling resources will help you earn votes for the Diplomatic Victory. If you have the Score Victory enabled, then it is critical to win almost every vote for Diplomatic Victory points; otherwise, the game will likely time out before a Diplomatic Victory can be achieved. If you're planning on going for a Diplo Victory, you should pay special attention to any emergencies or competitions that can reward you with a victory point. The Statue of Liberty world wonder also provides a free Diplomatic Victory point (instead of the 2 settlers that it provided in Rise & Fall).

Diplomatic Victory points are few and far between. Take them when you can --
if for nothing else than to deny them from other civs.

If you decide to go for the Culture Victory, you should use Hockey Rinks to increase the appeal of adjacent tiles so that National Parks, Seaside Resorts, or Ski Resorts can be placed, and so as to maximize their yields. Both your uniques come online around the same time, so you can hopefully use them to trigger a Golden Age and take the "Wish You Were Here" dedication. This bonus is only available in the modern, atomic, and information eras, and it provides a +50% tourism bonus to all cities with a governor, and doubles the tourism effects of National Parks.

Even if you're not going for the Diplomatic Victory, you should make an effort to win competitions and emergencies that award a victory point. Doing so will at least deny them from an opponent.

Not so sunny anymore... Playing against Wilfrid Laurier's Canada

Wilfrid Laurier's A.I. agenda: Canadian Expeditionary Force

"Responds to Emergencies whenever possible, and likes civilizations who do the same. Dislikes those that ignore Emergencies."

Normally, tundra civs won't have cities worth capturing. Unless a city has wonders or decent districts, they rarely have the population or productivity to be worth conquering and keeping. This might not be the case with Canada. Unlike a unique improvement, a Canadian tundra farm is just a regular farm, and so it won't be deleted if you capture the city. This means you'll be getting a much better city from Canada than if you were capturing the same city from another civ -- especially if the farms are clustered and are buffed by Feudalism adjacency.

If you do find some primo Canadian real estate that you want to steal, you will not be able to declare a Surprise War against Canada. Do not let this deter your conquest plans, if you have any. Simply denounce Canada and wait five turns. If you don't want to give them a chance to prepare, then you can still surprise them by finding a partner for a Joint War. Or try to overwhelm them with loyalty pressure and flip the city.

You keep the farms if you capture a Canadian tundra city.

The Mountie is really not a unit that you'll need to think too much about. In most cases, it probably won't make a difference in war, especially if you're fielding some anti-cav units. The only time the Mountie will be problematic is if Canada has been able to build multiple National Parks, which will provide nearby Mounties with a +10 combat bonus (giving them the same combat strength as Infantry). If you have National Parks in your territory, then take care not to let the Mounties get too close to them, since they will gain a +5 bonus near your National Parks. This will only be a problem if both you and Canada research Conservation early and create National Parks earlier than usual, since Mounties will be quickly out-matched by other Industrial and Modern units.

What might be more problematic is if Canada is able to unite coalitions against you. Laurier is going to generate more favor if he can complete emergencies or competitions, which will give him more influence in the World Congress to enact more emergencies that might target you. Be prepared to have to defend your conquests (whether they be military or religious) from emergency coalitions so that you can maintain control and also reap the rewards of successfully fending off an emergency.

Canada will likely have plenty of spare strategic resources for you to buy in a pinch.

If you're not looking for conquest, then you'll find that Prime Minister Laurier is a relatively friendly and cooperative leader who is usually more than happy to be friends or trade partners. He is also likely to be a good place to go if you need to buy some strategic resources in a pinch. He can turn on you if you fail to respond to emergencies, but is otherwise loyal. If your interests align, then he can also be a valuable partner in the World Congress, since the extra favor that he earns will make it easier for him to force through any proposals that you both support. Sadly, you can't negotiate or trade for promises to vote for any given proposals (as you could in Civ V), so you'll have no idea what he's going to propose or vote for until it happens.

Discussions & Change Log

Thanks for reading. I hope this guide helps you to build a Canadian civilization that will stand the test of time!

These strategy guides for Civilization VI have been taking longer to research and write than I would like. Part of this is due to the fact that I'm not as familiar and experienced with Civ VI as I was with Civ V when I started writing strategy guides for that game, so I have to spend more time trying to learn the different mechanics and rules associated with each new civ that I play. I also have a lot more things competing for my time.

If you enjoy this strategy guide, and would like to see more like it, please consider making a contribution and become a Patron on Patreon. As a Patron, you'll have the ability to vote on which civilization(s) you'd like to see a strategy guide for next, will receive early previews of certain content, and will have an opportunity to discuss or contribute to its development. With some additional funding, I could dedicate more time to writing guides like this one, and can maybe even branch out into more video content on Youtube.

9 April, 2019: Antarctic Late Summer patch:

On April 2, the "Antarctic Late Summer Patch" was released. This patch gave Wilfrid Laurier's The Last Best West ability +1 production on snow and tundra tiles (including hills). This buff was added to the ability description.

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Welcome to Mega Bears Fan's blog, and thanks for visiting! This blog is mostly dedicated to game reviews, strategies, and analysis of my favorite games. I also talk about my other interests, like football, science and technology, movies, and so on. Feel free to read more about the blog.

And check out my colleague, David Pax's novel Without Gravity on his website!

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